RV Park and Campground Briefs

Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks officials are keeping an eye out for a young black bear who wandered into Great Falls on Sunday and was spotted again on Monday morning on the west side of town.

Around 1 a.m., Cascade County sheriff’s deputies spotted a bear, about two years old, at Dick’s RV Park on the southwest side of town. In the 22 years co-owner Bob Dick has worked there, he said he’s never seen anything like it.

“It’s exhilarating. You love to see anything wild,” he said. Residents spotted the same cinnamon-colored black bear in the West Hill area at around 6 a.m. on Sunday, but officials thought he’d left town after they chased him down to Sun River.

Union County will auction 15 campground lots Friday with a minimum bid of $1 each.

The deed sale will be at 10 a.m. in the public meeting room on the second floor of the Union County Courthouse, 26 W. Union St.

The “blow out” sale with a low minimum bid is designed to sell the campground lots and return them to the property tax rolls, county commissioners said. All lots are located in the Heritage Hills Campground on Indiana 101 South.

Seven of the properties went unsold in the last deed sale, deputy auditor Deana Hill said. The rest have been county property for quite a while, another reason to set a low minimum bid, she said.

The county has about $175 invested in title searches and fees for each, Hill said. Taxes are about $50 per lot each year, she said.

“I’m hoping we sell them all on Friday,” Hill said.

Lots that don’t sell in Friday’s auction will be for sale on the Internet for 10 days beginning June 18. The Union County lots will be sold through the website of SRI Inc. (www.sri-taxsale.com), an Indianapolis company that specializes in delinquent tax and deed sales.

From WISH-TV, Indianapolis:

A ceremony that was supposed to highlight eighth-grade achievements at Harshman Magnet Middle School on Monday (June 11) turned into a small memorial service for a student who drowned a day earlier .

DuJuan Thompson’s mother told the group of students, parents and teachers, “It was his time to go.”

“God used him (as) a stepping stone to show what you are supposed to do,” Julia Webb said.

Webb said her son never took swim lessons. He and the football team were at Hidden Paradise Campgrounds in St. Paul to celebrate their championship win.

Witnesses told police Thompson jumped into the water and yelled, “I can swim.” After three attempts a dive team found the teen.

No lifeguards were on duty. The campground uses what they call a watchman system to monitor the water.

Webb said perhaps her son’s death will be the catalyst for change. The 14-year-old had asthma and a minor heart condition.

MISSOURI

From KQHA-TV, Quincy, Ill.:

Fire destroyed a river camp at Mississippi Mile River Camp near Palmyra, Mo.

The call came shortly before 5:30 p.m. on June 8.

No one was hurt, but a piece of history was lost.

Palmyra Firefighter John Lewis says the river camp was made from a historic caboose built in the early 1900s by the Chicago Burlington of Quincy Railroad in Aurora, Illinois.

It was retired in the mid 1970s and was moved next to the Mississippi River around 1980.

“It absolutely kills me because I’m a big railroad buff, and I’ve always wanted a caboose in my back yard. To see this piece of history go, it’s really sad,” Lewis said.

Lewis says the river camp’s owners were burning brush, getting ready for the summer camping season, when the fire spread to the camp.